Exploring the Congruence of actigraphy and the Pediatric Autism Insomnia rating Scale.

Objective/background: Insomnia is common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We recently developed and validated the 21-item Pediatric Autism Insomnia Rating Scale (PAIRS). This report explores the associations and agreements between actigraphy and PAIRS.

Stability and Validity of Self-Reported Depression and Anxiety in Autistic Youth.

The aim of this study was to assess test-retest reliability and diagnostic validity of self-report instruments of depression and anxiety in autistic youth. Participants were 55 autistic youth aged 8-17 years presenting with depressive or anxiety symptoms. They were interviewed with the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children (K-SADS-PL) and completed the Children's Depression Inventory, Second Edition - Self Report Short (CDI 2:SR[S]) and the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) twice, separated by a two-week interval.

Measurement Invariance in Intellectual and Developmental Disability Research.

Measurement invariance (MI) is a psychometric property of an instrument indicating the degree to which scores from an instrument are comparable across groups. In recent years, there has been a marked uptick in publications using MI in intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) samples. Our goal here is to provide an overview of why MI is important to IDD researchers and to describe some challenges to evaluating it, with an eye towards nudging our subfield into a more thoughtful and measured interpretation of studies using MI.

Refining our Understanding of Anxiety in Autistic Youth: Examining the Role of Behavioral Inflexibility.

Prior research has demonstrated that cognitive inflexibility is associated with anxiety in autistic individuals. Everyday patterns of behavioral inflexibility (e.g.